Anyone else with a "young" kindergartner?

[Aidensmom]

Thank you for all of your replies.

FWIW, he did a lot better when I dropped him off today - no complaining about having to go to school and no crying like he did last week, and in the car on the way there he happily asked me to help him some more with memorizing his lunch number (his homework assignment).

Like I said in my first post, I was even younger when I started kindergarten (December b-day and had to get special permission to attend), and I never had a problem at all in falling behind. I do think my son is capable, but he has noticed the age difference and it seems to be affecting his confidence. As an only child, he is actually fairly mature because he spends a lot of time interacting with adults, so hopefully that won't be too much of a problem. He is, however, more "attached" to me than a non- only child may be, so he does have a hard time still with the separation.

 

[suzannen]

I really believe it's the child, not the age. My DD has an October birthday, so she started K a month before her 5th birthday. She is now starting 7th grade and has excelled both academically and socially, so sending her was the right decision for her. My sister held back my nephew an additional year, so even though he's 2 years older than my DD, he's starting 8th grade (one grade ahead), but has struggled a bit every single year. Holding him back did not give him a major advantage, although he might have struggled worse if he had gone earlier.

You really need to judge your own child's readiness. In our school, it's common for one or two children to repeat K because both the parents and teacher agreed it would be beneficial. But, as the teacher told me, rarely does that decision ever have to do with "real" age.

 

[Becky2005]

Sounds like he is getting used to the transition.

My 6 year old is one of the younger ones -- although not as young. He has an end of May birthday. Add to that he has fine motor skill delays & speech delays. I STILL sent him to Kindergarten on time. I know I questioned it with his preschool teacher & her response to me was there are kids younger than him going and even if I held him back, didn't mean his issues would not still be there the following year. He did fine and is going into first grade.

It's the beginning of the school year. Just keep encouraging him and I'm sure he will be doing fine. If toward the end of the school year there are still issues then I would worry.

I'm lucky though that around here, almost no one holds their children back, not even the summer ones, so we don't have a huge age discrepency except for what naturally occurs. It's weird for me because my last one is an October baby, so he will be an older one in the classroom and I have never had that. My other 2 are right in the middle (March & Jan).

 

[Miss Inga Depointe]

I think it used to be that people started kids earlier than they do now. The only concern I would have is the trend (here, anyway) to send kids later. It's not that your son would be younger, but much, much younger, in our school district, because people are sending (especially boys) to K at age 6.

I have a friend who has a son who is very bright but by far the youngest in his class. He graduated last year from HS, and he did very well academically but socially it was very frustrating for him.I honestly think my friend should have let him start with kids his own age. She thought he would be bored because he was bright, but he ended up being lonely, because he was always a bit younger acting and never fit in.

I'm not saying this will happen with your son, but I just thought it might be something to think about.

 

[Pembo]

My son is the youngest in his grade, the smallest and the smartest. His teachers in k, 1 and 2 all told me that he was the smartest in the class. The other kids like him because he is the "little" one. His only problem is that they always want to pick him up?!

Don't make a big deal about his age and he won't either.

I have a friend who is a teacher who said that if she had waited until her own "young" kindergartener was ready for school, she'd still be waiting. He's 30 now.

 

[ReneeA]

My DS is starting kindergarten this year, and will not be 5 until Oct. I am very nervous about sending him, as he has apraxia which is a neurological speech disorder. He's been in speech therapy since he was 21 months old, and preschool for 2 years. He is caught up acedemically and is a very quick learner. One of the side effects of apraxia is problems with motor skills. His gross motor skills are good, fine need lots of work.

I ended up sending him because my DH really wanted to let him try it. We are sending him to half day kindergarten this year, and if he doesn't EXCEL, I am having him do whole day kindergarten next year. One of our big issues is that DS is very, very tall. At 4 1/2 he's 48 pounds and 48". Both our families are extremely tall, and I am worried about him standing out. However, odds are it's going to happen anyway.

Hugs to Aiden...I know your concerns.

 

[lillygator]

Wow - the cutoffs are so different...my DD's bday is Halloween, since you have to be 5 by 9/1 here in Fl she will start at age 5 and turn 6 pretty early in the school year. When I was growing up I was 4 in K and turned 5 that Nov.....

 

[WDWfan36]

Subscribing. I was born on December first which used to be the cut off date

 

[chobie]

Sorry, for not having read the thread, but I would like to give my honest opinion. My son was also the youngest in K and still is in 4th grade. It was a mistake to put him in. If I had it to do over again I would have held him back a year. I could not undo the mistake because intellectually he can handle the work, but emotionally he is very immature for his grade and always has been. If I held him back he would be bored and frustrated with the work, so that is why I keep letting him move on though he is immature compared to his classmates. I'm hoping someday it will catch up.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

The question that parents have to ask themselves is "will the extra year make a difference?".

My older 3 children are all young for their grade. At the time they went to K, the cut-off in Maryland was 12/31. My DDs birthday was 12/24, so she was 4y, 8m. My 2 boys turned 5 on 9/25 and 9/28, so they had almost a month of being 4yo. My DD did well--good small motor skills, social skills were good. Really no problems.

My next child had some issues and I regretted not holding him back, but I think that he would have had the same issues even if he were a year behind. He has ADD and Tourettes, so has those things to deal with, which he'd have to deal with no matter what. He's now going into his junior year and is blossoming, or so it seems. He's still very disorganized, but I think he will be when he's an old man, too.

My next son lacked confidence. I sent him to a private kindergarten at his preschool because I was going to repeat kindergarten at our local elem school, holding him back. But he really took off in reading and math and was very much read academically for first grade, so we sent him on to first. He was a little bit socially immature at first, but was at the top of his class grade wise. He's now going into 8th grade and it's obvious that it was a very good decision for him. More obvious for him that for the other kids and he's the one we almost held back.

Then, MD changed the cut-off and our last child, with a Dec birthday had to wait. I was very glad since I don't think he would have been ready and it took the decision away from me. He turned 6yo a 4 months into kindergarten and it's nice having an older K. Jake didn't read at 5yo like his siblings did and his small motor skills were not as far along, so the year was really needed.

Sounds like Aiden is doing fine! It's an adjustment. It took each of my kids 2-3 weeks to get used to the routine of kindergarten.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I didn't read all the replies but here's my situation. My dd was a young kindergartener, no problem at all. Twin sons even younger. I should have kept them back. It's even an issue now with them starting college. If I could do it over again I would have kept them from kindergarten or held them back after they completed their first year. If you have doubts now listen to them. Find an alternative or keep him home for an extra year. With boys it's emotional development and difficulty paying attention and sitting still more then an an academic thing.

 

[BeccaGrace]

Thanks for starting this thread...My oldest is starting K this fall and is a February birthday so we didn't have this issue with her but we'll have this dilemma with my youngest next year.

Unlike most of the prior posts my dd is fine on a social level but has learning delays. She is classified as preschool disabled and was able to start Pre-K last year in an integrated classroom (special needs 3 and 4 year olds with regularly developing 4 year olds). All the kids loved her and didn't treat her differently even though she didn't really speak and is very tiny (35 inches and 25 pounds)...in fact all the kids are in my oldest daughter's class now but are better friends with my youngest

So this year Becca is in pre-K again but next year she'll make the cut-off for Kindergarten by two weeks. A lot of whether we send her or do a 3rd year of pre-K will depend on how she does with her IEP this year. As of now she doesn't know any letters or numbers and rather start her in Kindergarten (even with special help) if she is still that far behind we definitely will hold her back a year even though in tempermant and behavior she is totally ready.

It's such a hard decision because what you do now really does have such a big impact. OP--It's hard not to second guess yourself when they come home or go in crying but given your latest update it sounds like he's adjusting really well! I would definitely give it a few more weeks...he'll probably be loving Kindergarten Good luck!

 

[Magalex]

It can be Positive for both positions(younger or older). I think it is not just one factor. Household, community(what is offered for preschool education), school district and child's personality. My DS (who will be 6 on 8/20) will entering K on Aug 28th. We are very happy with decision. He is happy too and just a normal kid. His preschool offered a PRE-K program set up for 5 yr olds(late summer or early fall-winter). The school district has a 9/1 deadline. His PRE-K was just set up like K. every day/half a day. He has grown so much over the year. Also while he was in 4 yr old pre-school he never mentioned K or questioned why some of his other classmates(29 children) were going to K. So that was a big clue to us to enter him in the PRE-K program. Which is wonderful. He has made lots of friends both going into K and first grade. I haven't heard any child 5 or 6 talk about how someone is younger or older. They are just happy to have a new friend and they will know someone in school. He also has talked about K this past year then he would of at 4 1/2 yrs old. Good Luck to all the parent and children in the 2006/2007 school yr